Computers with Braille, photo enlarging machines, and other equipment are also extremely expensive and not available at most schools. ... It is difficult enough to find a university which offers the services a student needs, to get the funding, and then to adjust to the new environment and the routine of the school. Students with disabilities also meet prejudice and ignorance. Getting professors to believe in the existence of a hidden disability- such as a learning disability or an allergy to the environment-is an additional challenge.’’11

It is to be noted, too, that often certain university programs and agencies, especially graduate programs, don't allow for part-time studies. "Agencies that fund students with special needs sometimes insist that students go to school full-time. Many can't do this because of other commitments or because their disability limits their course load.’’12 There really is no legitimate reason why individuals must attend full-time studies and such lack of access is discriminatory.

Although there have been some exceptional individuals who have attempted to understand the issues surrounding women with disabilities, much work is still to be clone. One problem is the lack of role models. "It seems critical for women with disabilities to become visible role models for younger students enrolled in both residential and public early education programs, as well as the university system. Disabled adolescent girls need to see disabled women as professors, scientists, counselors, businesswomen, and data processors. Furthermore, it is important for them to work with people with whom they can directly identify-as women who are disabled.’’13

Deaf Mute

"What a pity--that couple can never speak to each other about their love" (woman talking about a disabled couple).

This dance of fingers sheds veils of air, reveals ten limes over the nakedness of my desire.

My palms doubly celebrate you, inscribe my love upon the space between us, enclose tenderness, shape it like a flower.

And though the world about us roars, this silence is our own private universe where in I sow a promise: kisses falling like stars upon your mouth, each fingertip a white flame foreplaying Heaven, igniting us toward that wordless ceremony where you and I will blaze in pas de deux into the profounder silence that will be our bodies, singing

Janis Andrews
Canadian Woman Studies Vol 13, No 4, p 58.

There is a lack of role models generally , for women in most areas; however, the point is that women with disabilities appear to be at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to individual importance and success. What happened to the whole issue of equality? Does it not apply to women with disabilities? Do women with disabilities not make a difference in society or the feminist movement?

Disabled Arts Movement

But we can note that women with disabilities are making a difference. For example, it appears that the women's disability movement is taking place through the various arts. The disabled arts movement challenges the stereotypes and omissions of non-disabled culture. "In her writing, tape-slide and performance works, Mary Duffy has used her naked body to confront the issues of gender, representation and disability in a particularly powerful way.

The female body is constantly subjected to the judgmental gaze. Whether it be the gaze of the medic who defines the body as healthy or diseased, or the connoisseur who defines it as beautiful or ugly, the female body is caught in a perpetual cycle of judgment and categorization. Shock, identification, rejection, admiration, sympathy-all the se are possible responses to the images. But ultimately of gender, the power of the images lies in the fact that we are not made to witness a display but are, rather, involved in the processes through which identity is formed.’’14

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